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WE CURRENTLY HAVE  MORE THAN 200  LISTED ITEMS

 

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·       RAVI SHANKAR with GEORGE HARRISON, RINGO STARR, NICKY HOPKINS, KLAUS VOORMAN, JIM KELTNER, BILLY PRESTON AND OTHERS – SHANKAR FAMILY & FRIENDS –  RARE  ORIGINAL 1974 ALBUM ON GEORGE HARRISON'S 'DARK HORSE' LABEL, AND PRODUCED BY GEORGE HARRISON HIMSELF – ORIGINAL 1974 DARK HORSE RECORDS STEREO LP SP-22002

 

·       ORIGINAL U.S. PRESSING

 

·       ONE OF THE RAREST LP RELEASES ON THE DARK HORSE LABEL

 

THIS ALBUM COMES WITH AN ABSOLUTELY STUNNING, ILLUSTRATED GEORGE HARRISON & RAVI SHANKAR 24 TOUR PHOTO BOOK -- ONE OF THE FINEST TOUR BOOKS WE HAVE EVER HELD IN OUR HANDS - A JOY TO HOLD AND BEHOLD.

 

·       IN ADDITION, THE ALBUM COMES WITH THE ORIGINAL 4-PAGE INSERT / LYRICS SHEER, WHICH CAN DOUBLE AS A POSTER

 

·       ORIGINAL BROWN 'DARK HORSE' LABEL  WITH A STYLIZED IMAGE OF A HORSE.

 

·       THIS IS THE ORIGINAL, AUTHENTIC, FIRST U.S. PRESSING; THIS IS NOT A REISSUE, AN IMPORT, OR A COUNTERFEIT PRESSING.

 

·       ORIGINAL, THIN CARDBOARD COVER (NO THICK CARDBOARD COVERS WERE EVER PRODUCED FOR THIS TITLE)

 

·       FAIRLY THICK VINYL PRESSING On the scale from 1 to 10 (1 being the least, and  10 being the most severe), we assess the thickness of the vinyl as 6.

 

 (►PLEASE SEE THE IMAGE OF THE COVER, LABEL OR BOTH, SHOWN BELOW)

(Note: this is a REAL image of the ACTUAL item you are bidding on. This is NOT a "recycled" image from our previous auction. What you see is what you'll get.  GUARANTEED!)

 

 

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Shankar Family & Friends (stylised as Shankar Family ॐ Friends on the album cover) is an album by Indian musician Ravi Shankar, recorded primarily in Los Angeles during the spring of 1973, but not released until late 1974. It was produced by Shankar's friend George Harrison and one of the first releases on the ex-Beatle's Dark Horse label. Out of print for many years, and much sought after as a result, the album was remastered in 2010 and reissued as part of the Ravi Shankar–George Harrison box set Collaborations.

 

The title Shankar Family & Friends refers to the group-participation approach to the music, from Shankar's sister-in-law Lakshmi and son Shubho to a host of "friends" from the Indian subcontinent, Europe and the United States. In a deliberate blend of "East-meets-West" musical styles, other performers include Indian-music pioneers Alla Rakha, Ashish Khan, Shivkumar Sharma and Hariprasad Chaurasia, and Western musicians such as Tom Scott, Emil Richards, Billy Preston, Ringo Starr and Jim Keltner. The album features the Harrison-arranged pop bhajan "I Am Missing You" and a jazz-funk instrumental, "Dispute & Violence", the latter a part of an intended ballet, titled Dream, Nightmare & Dawn.

 

Although Harrison had served as Ravi Shankar's producer before – on the latter's 1971 Bangladesh relief EP Joi Bangla; the soundtrack for the Apple documentary film Raga; and a more recent live album with Ali Akbar Khan, recorded in New York – this was the first occasion that the two had collaborated on a studio album. Harrison would later refer to these and other projects with Shankar as one of his "little careers going on on the side", a series of rewarding collaborations that co-existed beside his solo career. This time, although Shankar Family & Friends did begin life as an Apple Records project, the results would not be issued on the Beatles' label, but on Harrison's own Dark Horse Records.

 

The bulk of the recording took place in Los Angeles during April 1973, shortly after Harrison had completed work on his album Living in the Material World and that of Nicky Hopkins, recorded concurrently in London. Arriving in Los Angeles in March, Harrison first attended Sunset Sound Studios, where former bandmate Ringo Starr's sessions for Ringo were getting under way. (It was at this point that Starr, Harrison, John Lennon, Billy Preston and Klaus Voormann recorded Lennon's track "I'm the Greatest" together, an event that immediately sparked rumours of a possible permanent reunion involving at least three of the four Beatles.) Starr, Preston, Voormann and Hopkins would all contribute to Shankar Family & Friends over the next couple of months.

 

Sessions began at A&M Studios, Los Angeles, on 1 April and continued into May, with a break towards the end of the first month. In addition to Starr, Preston et al., as producer, Harrison invited Tom Scott (on saxophones and flute), Emil Richards (marimbas), Jim Keltner (drums) and David Bromberg (guitar) along to participate. A jazz arranger and composer, Scott had previously worked with Harihar Rao, a former student of Shankar's and now an ethnomusicologist at UCLA. These sessions marked the first time that Harrison and Scott worked together, so beginning a loose partnership that would endure through much of the 1970s.

 

For the Indian contingent, Shankar chose a cast of similarly illustrious names: Alla Rakha and Kamala Chakravarty, both of whom had supported him at the Concert for Bangladesh; Ashish Khan, Shivkumar Sharma and Hariprasad Chaurasia, on sarod, santoor and bamboo flute, respectively, who had all taken part in Harrison's 1968 sessions for the Wonderwall soundtrack album (and by extension, for the Beatles track "The Inner Light"); and Lakshmi Shankar, L. Subramaniam and Harihar Rao, all of whom likewise went on to feature in the Music Festival from India venture the following year. While the majority of the recording was completed during that spring at A&M, further sessions appear to have been required through to early 1974, at Harrison's Friar Park studio.

 

Side one of the original LP begins with the Harrison-arranged, Spector-esque "I Am Missing You", a "toe-tapping" pop song about which Shankar would later recall: "I don't know how I did it, but one day I wrote an English song without thinking ... George heard it and liked it so much he wanted to do a version of his own." Released as a single, "I Am Missing You" features Lakshmi Shankar on vocals backed by a full Western rock band – Harrison, Hopkins, Scott, Voormann, Keltner, Preston and others – and a soaring, almost Ronette-like arrangement similar to those Harrison bestowed on his own "Don't Let Me Wait Too Long" and Starr's "Photograph" around this time.

 

The opening track is followed by four further Krishna bhajans, including a reprise of "I Am Missing You", and concluding with a gospel-inspired reading of the traditional folk song "Jaya Jagadish Haré". Side two (from the track "Overture" onwards) was written as a proposed ballet entitled Dream, Nightmare & Dawn, made up of what Harrison biographer Simon Leng describes as "adventurous ensemble compositions, improvised on the spot in two days". Shankar later conceded that such an approach was "a strange way of doing things", not to mention expensive. The ballet was never performed live in its entirety, however.

 

 

The result across the fourteen tracks is a blend of traditional Indian music, jazz, funk, rock and Western pop – in Shankar's words, "The album contains almost every possible style that you can think of." The best-known songs are the single and "Dispute & Violence", on which Emil Richards and Tom Scott star. Both these tracks were performed on the 1974 North American tour undertaken by Harrison and Shankar, when Harrison would introduce "I Am Missing You" as "a love song to Krishna". Footage of a live version of "Dispute & Violence" from the tour was included as a bonus feature on the DVD release of Martin Scorsese's 2011 documentary George Harrison: Living in the Material World.

 

Due to the delay in establishing a worldwide distributor for Dark Horse Records, Shankar Family & Friends was not issued for well over a year, until the autumn of 1974. It was numbered Dark Horse 22002, being the new label's second release, after Splinter's The Place I Love. Promotion for both albums included full-page advertisements in music publications such as Billboard, with Shankar's release carrying the tagline: "Only one artist in the world performed at the three most significant musical events of all time: Monterey Pop, Woodstock, and The Concert for Bangla Desh. Dark Horse Records is proud to present his new music." The album cover consists of a group photograph taken at A&M Studios that highlights the album's East-meets-West theme. Shankar sports a baritone saxophone, Harrison sits behind a small drum, while most of the other musicians have swapped their regular instrument for the opposite culture's near equivalent: Keltner plays another hand drum, whereas Rakha holds a pair of drumsticks; bass player Voormann has a tamboura, Sharma a Western-style violin, and Chaurasia a bass flute.

 

Shankar Family & Friends peaked at number 176 on the Billboard 200 in America, but failed to place on Britain's album chart, then just a top 50. According to pop-culture author Robert Rodriguez, Shankar was in two minds about the album's fusion of Indian music and Western styles, remaining "sensitive to charges that he was abandoning his classical roots for the rewards of superstardom". Harrison was proud of the result, and in 1979 named Shankar Family & Friends and its more traditional follow-up, Ravi Shankar's Music Festival from India, as two of the best releases on his record label.

 

In 1996, "I Am Missing You", "Supané Mé Āyé" and "Dispute & Violence" were included on Shankar's career-retrospective box set In Celebration, compiled by Harrison and Alan Kozlowski. With the album having been long out of print, Kozlowski viewed the inclusion of tracks from Shankar Family & Friends among the "prizes" offered by the compilation. The songs appear on disc four, about which Bruce Eder of AllMusic writes: "the last disc, with the addition of the voices, is the most delightful of all, spotlighting Shankar the composer and leader as well as Shankar the instrumentalist, and offering a rich, bracing body of music that stands apart from most listeners' associations with his work from the 1960s and early 1970s … [Disc four] draws us into a realm of music that is so sublimely beautiful that it makes everything that has come before it, in all its bejeweled splendor, seem almost plain and pale by comparison."

 

Shankar Family & Friends was issued on CD in 2010 as part of Dark Horse's Collaborations box set by Shankar and Harrison. Reviewing the release for AllMusic, Richie Unterberger opines that "the more traditional pieces [come] off best" on Shankar Family & Friends, which he views as "the least artistically successful of the [four] discs", with "the blend sometimes sounding forced and, more surprisingly, occasionally sappy".[37] Conversely, Terry Staunton of Record Collector considered it to be "arguably … the most accessible" of the albums, on a box set that is "a strong testament to two friends' mutual respect and their desire to push musical boundaries". Staunton added of Shankar Family & Friends: "Classical Indian musicians rub shoulders with regular Harrison buddies, the clash of cultures resulting in a succession of intoxicating melodies."

 

Although he finds the pop version of "I Am Missing You" incompatible with the rest of the album, PopMatters' Sachyn Mital admires the ballet, writing: "'Overture' demonstrates the musical diversity the project encompasses … 'Dispute & Violence' starts with vocal call and response interaction then transforms into an upbeat dance number. Everything ends optimistically though as the ballet progresses from an 'Awakening' to 'Peace & Hope', a slow building and collaborative, yet anti-climatic, finale." Joe Marchese of The Second Disc praises Collaborations for the adventurous quality of its music, which he suggests is "Exhibit 'A'" in support of Harrison meriting the title "the Radical Beatle". Of the three studio albums in the box set, Marchese views Shankar Family & Friends as the "most commercial" and writes: "The album gets off to a wonderful start with 'I Am Missing You,' as sung by Lakshmi Shankar. This rare English-language song shows off Shankar's gift for melody … [The ballet's] music is appropriately varied in tone and instrumentation over three movements entitled 'Dream,' 'Nightmare' and 'Dawn.' Western instruments such as saxophone, bass and guitar augment the traditional Indian sound to create unusual, evocative mood pieces with a definite, hypnotic groove."

 

Track listing

 

All songs by Ravi Shankar, except where noted.

 

Side one

 

    "I Am Missing You" – 3:45

    "Kahān Gayelavā Shyām Saloné" – 2:55

    "Supané Mé Āyé Preetam Sainyā" – 4:15

    "I Am Missing You (Reprise)" – 4:03

    "Jaya Jagadish Haré" (PD) – 4:54

 

Side two

 

Dream, Nightmare & Dawn (Music for a Ballet)

    "Overture" – 2:33

    Part One (Dream):

    "Festivity & Joy" – 3:56

    "Love-Dance Ecstasy" – 3:13

    Part Two (Nightmare):

    "Lust (Rāga Chandrakauns)" – 3:13

    "Dispute & Violence" – 2:43

    "Disillusionment & Frustration" – 2:50

    "Despair & Sorrow (Rāga Marwā)" – 3:04

    Part Three (Dawn):

    "Awakening" – 3:05

    "Peace & Hope (Rāga Bhatiyār)" – 4:31

 

Personnel

 

    Ravi Shankar – direction, spoken voice, sitar, surbahar, Moog synthesizer, backing vocals

    Lakshmi Shankar – vocals, swarmandal, backing vocals

    Jitendra Abhisheki – vocals

    Tom Scott – saxophones, flute, handclaps

    George Harrison – electric and acoustic guitars, autoharp, arrangement on "I Am Missing You"

    Shivkumar Sharma – santoor, shaker, backing vocals

    Shubho Shankar – sitar

    Alla Rakha – tabla, pakavaj

    Emil Richards – marimba, percussion

    Hariprasad Chaurasia – bansuri, cowbell

    Ashish Khan – sarod, swarmandal, backing vocals

    L. Subramaniam – violin

    Palghat Raghu – mridangam

    Harihar Rao – spoken voice, dholak

    Kamala Chakravarty – backing vocals

    G.S. Sachdev – bansuri

    Sharad Kumar – bansuri

    Pranesh Khan – dholak

    Fakir Mohammad – tamboura

    Nodu Mullick – kartal, tamboura

    Krishna Temple – kartal

    George Ruckert – sarod

    Klaus Voormann – bass

    Nicky Hopkins – piano

    Jim Keltner – drums

    Billy Preston – organ

    Ringo Starr – drums

    Fred Teague – organ

    Ed Shaunessey – drums

    Dennis Budimir – electric guitar

    David Bromberg – electric guitar

    Vini Poncia – tambourine

    Paul Beaver – Moog synthesizer

    Malcolm Cecil – Moog synthesizer

    Robert Margouleff – Moog synthesizer

    Ray Cramer – cello

    Al Casey – mandolin

    W. Webb – esraj

    Ronald Cohen – sarangi

    Ray Pizzi – bassoon

    Bobby Bruce – violin

    Gordon Swift – violin

    Gene Cipriano – oboe

 

 (EXCERPT FROM AN ONLINE REVIEW BY WIKIPEDIA.ORG)

 

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·                               CONDITION:

 

·                               RECORD

 

(IMPORTANT NOTE: unless otherwise noted, ALL records are graded visually, and NOT play-graded!; we  grade records under the strong, diffuse room light or discrete sunlight)

 

(a)          WE GRADE THE VINYL AS STRONG VG++, JUST A NOTCH BELOW NEAR MINT. A few light abrasions (probably just sleeve scuffs inflicted in storage over the years) ARE VISIBLE, but they appear fairly  insignificant relative to the overall condition of the vinyl, and are only moderately visually distracting. For most part, the vinyl looks impeccable, without any MAJOR visual flaws or imperfections. Much of the original luster is intact, and the vinyl shines and sparkles almost like new.

 

(b)          The record is  apparently pressed on a RELATIVELY  thick, inflexible vinyl. This is NOT a thin, flimsy ('dynaflex' type),  vinyl, but not the thickest, most rigid vinyl, either.

 

(c)           The album comes with the original 24-page illustrated tour book

 

(d)          In addition, the album comes with the original 4-page insert/poster

 

(e)           The record comes in the original stock inner sleeve.

 

(f)            Of course, this is a full-bodied ANALOG recording, and not an inferior, digital recording!!!

 

 

·       COVER

 

THE COVER IS NICE --- ABOUT EXCELLENT OR VERY GOOD+++.

 

The following flaws or imperfections are noted on the cover:

 

-         Cover has some light ring wear (nothing significant); On the scale from 1 to 10 (1 being the least, and  10 being the most severe), we assess the severity of ring wear as 3

 

-        Cover has a few tiny wrinkles along the spine

 

-         Visible shelf wear noted on the seams

 

NO OTHER IMPERFECTIONS ON THE COVER:

 

-        No split seams

-        No cut-out (drill) holes.

-        No cut-out corners

-        No saw-marks or indents

-        No dirt/dust rubbing stains (friction marks caused by rubbing against other covers)

-        No yellowing from aging

-        No writing

-        No stamps

-        No tearing: no chips, dents or nicks on the seams

-        No peel-off marks

-        No stains

-        No mold or mildew spots

-        No stickers or labels

-        No water damage

-        No razor marks, scratches, pressure marks, lines, streaks, or  cuts.

-        No warping

-        No wax, glue, paint or liquid drops on the cover

-        No glue traces or wax residue.

-        No bar codes

-        No RIAA stamps or stickers. 

 

 

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POSTAGE & SHIPPING:

 

We offer THREE postage rates for both Domestic and International Mail: Media Mail, Priority Mail and Express Mail for domestic, and First Class, Priority International Mail, and Express International Mail for international orders. INTERNATIONAL CUSTOMERS PLEASE NOTE: WE RECOMMEND that you pay for USPS International Priority Mail OR International Express mail when making a payment in order to obtain tracking information, which is NOT available for First Class International shipments.

 

INTERNATIONAL POSTAGE rates vary from country to country. For SPECIFIC international and domestic postage rates ►. While you can be rest assured that ►, please note that damage, loss or theft in transit is always possible, and in the case of some countries even PROBABLE. To discuss this potential problem and ensure flawless delivery, please contact us thru eBay BEFORE placing a bid.

 

 

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OUR REFUND POLICY :

 

WE OFFER UNCONDITIONAL MONEY-BACK GUARANTEE WITHIN 30 DAYS FROM THE RECEIPT OF THE MERCHANDISE, NO QUESTIONS ASKED (THE BUYER PAYS FOR THE RETURN POSTAGE); Still sealed items MUST be returned sealed in order to be eligible for a refund Some restrictions apply. Please read our complete refund policy before placing a bid. ►  for the full text of our policy

 

 

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